h they felt the most interest, and by
his good nature.

This monotonous life was, however, frequently wearisome to Mirabeau; and
in order to vary it, and for the sake of exercise, after being occupied
for several hours in writing, he was in the habit of taking a
fowling-piece, according to the custom of the country, and putting a book
into his game-bag, he would frequently make long excursions on foot in
every direction. He admired the noble forests of chestnut-trees which
abound in the Limousin; the vast meadows, where numerous herds of cattle
of a superior breed are reared; and the running streams by which that
picturesque country is intersected. He generally returned to the chateau
long after sunset, saying that night scenery was peculiarly attractive to
him.

It was during and after supper that those conversations took place for
which Mirabeau supplied the principal and the most interesting materials.
He possessed the knack of provoking objections to what he might advance,
in order to combat them, as he did with great force of logic and in
energetic language; and thus he gave himself lessons in argument, caring
little about his auditory, his sole aim being to exercise his mental
ingenuity and to cultivate eloquence. Above all, he was fond of discussing
religious matters with the cure of the parish. Without displaying much
latitudinarianism, he disputed several points of doctrine and certain
pretensions of the church so acutely, that the pastor could say but little
in reply. This astonished the Limousin gentry, who, up to that time, had
listened to nothing but the drowsy discourses of their cures, or the
sermons of some obscure mendicant friars, and who placed implicit faith in
the dogmas of the church. The faith of a few was shaken, but the greater
number of his hearers were very much tempted to look upon the visitor as
an emissary of Satan sent to the chateau to destroy them. The cure,
however, did not despair of eventually converting Mirabeau.

At this period several robberies had taken place at no great distance from
the chateau: four or five farmers had been stopped shortly after nightfall
on their return from the market-towns, and robbed of their purses. Not one
of these persons had offered any resistance, for each preferred to make a
sacrifice rather than run the risk of a struggle in a country full of
ravines, and covered with a rank vegetation very favorable to the exploits
of brigands, who might be lying